Cuisine, stat! Park City hospital chef brings wellness to table

PARK CITY — Leave it to this celebrity-catering resort town to turn the concept of healthy eating on its head. Summit County's newest dining sensation is hospital food.

No, seriously.

The Park City Medical Center, tucked unobtrusively off Highway 40 near the Jordanelle Reservoir, has become health-food central for many area residents. Satisfied palates and word of mouth have spread the tale of executive chef and wellness coach Jason Kieffer's constantly changing menu at the hospital's Silver King Café.

Since its opening in September, the hospital's patients and area residents have been the first to experience Intermountain Healthcare's latest incarnation of how to expand the concept of wellness beyond medical care and physical therapy.

As former executive chef for the management team led by Bill Gates at Microsoft, Kieffer's contribution to health and wellness comes through his finesse in the kitchen, which is stocked with low-fat, gluten-free, calorie-conscious ingredients that are hand-picked for their quality and freshness.

Because hospitals usually cater to large numbers of inpatients, "most hospital food is prepackaged, in cans or bags, which means food costs are often higher, but food preparation costs are lower. It's easy to simply microwave the lasagna or boil the canned beans before sending them to a patient's room," Kieffer said.

Knowing their comparatively small clientele would expect something more sophisticated, hospital officials in Park City took a different philosophy, determined to put more emphasis on preparing healthy food from scratch, using more fresh ingredients and offering "made-to-order meals" rather than cafeteria-style mass production.

In fact, patients not only get freshly made-to-order meals available on the daily menu, they can speak with Kieffer himself about specialty requests, which he is willing to prepare if the ingredients are readily available.

And every patient has room service, which means the meals can be requested by phone and delivered to their room in 20 to 30 minutes, he said. "Some patients want particular kinds of food depending on the medical procedure or problem they're here for," he said.

Hospital spokeswoman Amy Roberts noted that mothers in labor often have specific likes and dislikes as they're preparing to give birth.

Kieffer's job is to make them all happy.